If you'd open your Bibles to Judges chapter 8 tonight, beginning at verse 22, Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, Rule over us, both you and your son, also your son's son, for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian. But Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you, the Lord shall rule over you. Yet Gideon said to them, I would request of you that each of you give me an earring from his spoil, for they had gold earrings because they were Ishmaelites. They said, we will surely give them. So they spread out a garment, and every one of them threw an earring there from his spoil. The weight of the gold earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels of gold besides the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple robes which were on the kings of Midian and besides the neck bands that were on their camel's neck. Gideon made it into an ephod and placed it in his city, Ophrah. And all Israel played the harlot with it there, so that it became a snare to Gideon and his household. So Midian was subdued before the sons of Israel, and they did not lift up their heads anymore. And the land was undisturbed for 40 years in the days of Gideon. Then, actually the way you pronounce this is Jerubbaal. The son of Joash went and lived in his own house. Now Gideon had 70 sons who were his direct descendants, for he had many wives. His concubine, who was in Shechem, also bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech. And Gideon, the son of Joash, died at a ripe old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash in Ophrah of the Abizites. Then it came about, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the sons of Israel again played the harlot with the Baal Baals, and they made Baal Barith their god. Thus the sons of Israel did not remember the Lord their God who had delivered them from the hands of all the enemies on every side, nor did they show kindness to the household of Jerubbaal, that is Gideon, in accord with all the good that he had done to Israel. May we pray. Father, we thank you for your precious inspired scriptures, and we thank you for the fact that you have preserved them for us so that we may study the scriptures and learn lessons. And we certainly need to learn the lesson that's explained in this text tonight. I pray that wherever the word of God is being taught tonight all over the world, and it's faithfully communicated, that you would do a powerful work. And we would certainly ask that for here tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. Dr. S. Lewis Johnson once told the story of a famed Bible teacher from England whose name was F.B. Meyer. F.B. Meyer was a Baptist minister who wrote many good devotional expositions that have ministered to many people. In fact, one time he was considered to be one of the great Bible teachers and preachers in the days of Spurgeon and Moody. F.B. Meyer preached successfully for many years and then for some unexplainable reason he quit preaching. He went into some sort of decline for a period of about nine years. And those who heard him during that period said he didn't preach much of anything. He didn't even seem to stand for the truth. That's so sad because here was a man who was being greatly used of God and somehow he got sidetracked and lost his way. It doesn't matter how old a person is or how long a person has walked with God or how much one has seen God do in one's lifetime. If a believer stops obeying the Word of God, his life can end up a mess. I'm certain that all of us know of believers who at one time or another were on fire for the Lord, but not anymore. Probably we all could testify of people who've drifted away from God and His Word. They've lost their focus. That can happen to any believer, and the proof of that is what happened to Gideon. You could be a believer who was once on fire for the Lord and no more be on fire for the Lord. Something could get you sidetracked. Something could pull you away from your focus and life could end in a sad way. Someone once said that the only believer who can afford to let his guard down and be assured that he will not stumble is one who is already in the presence of God. There are many passages of scripture that teach us life is short, but as one commentator said, life is long enough for a person to make a mess of it. We must always be on the alert until we get out of this world, because if we let our guard down, things can deteriorate quickly. And we especially need to be on careful guard when things seem to be successful, because it's when we're weak when we're the strongest. When we're the strongest, we can really be weak. Just before the Apostle Paul died, he assessed his own Christian life and he said this, I fought a good fight. I finished my course, I've kept the faith. I hope that will be the testimony for every one of us here tonight. That's not the testimony of Gideon. The point you'll see tonight is Gideon accomplished great things for God and he was blessed of God, but when his life ended, it ended in ways that were not right with God because he began to drift away from the word of God. There was an old military man who once said, after victory, you need to be very, very careful because there are still old landmines in the field. You can get killed if you're not careful. Gideon had come off a great victory, but he needed to understand this is a very critical time in my life. I need to stay on top of things. Gideon is a faith hero. He's one of the people who winds up in that great list of faith heroes in Hebrews chapter 11. So this is no lightweight man of God. There were some amazing things that happened in the life of Gideon. He became a mighty man of God as we've been tracking his life. He was greatly used by God, but his life ended in somewhat of a sour note. Somehow, as time moved forward, Gideon's spiritual life moved backward. Gideon had had great victory. Last time we were together, we saw, though, that he did a couple of odd things that don't seem to quite square with the Word. Instead of disciplining people, he killed some of his own people because they did not help him. And then he was prepared not to kill two Midianite kings that God said you're supposed to kill. God wanted those Arab idolaters destroyed and Gideon is wavering in his commitment to the Scriptures. And I think this goes back to Gideon's fleece signs. God's Word told him to do something, but he wavered at the Word of God, and he always wanted those fleece signs. We saw them earlier in his life. It appears that his struggles with obeying the Scriptures really come around full circle when you get near the end of his life. It doesn't matter how long a believer's walked with God, if you don't stay committed to understanding and obeying the Word, if you don't stay focused on doing the will of God, life can end a mess. Now Gideon has come back to hometown a victorious man. God had used him to literally rout the Midianites and get them out of the land. So what we're looking at tonight is the final postscript to his life. And there are three final postscript parts to it. First of all, Gideon responds properly to the people's request. You'll notice in verse 22, the men of Israel said to Gideon, rule over us. Now someone said if the story of Gideon's life would have ended right here, it would have ended great. The men of Israel want Gideon to be their king. They want him to form a dynasty. They want him to actually have him and his sons rule over them. That is what most people dream about. Most people dream about people who honor them and honor their family. Most people would love this type of power. These people wanted to honor Gideon as king. They wanted him to establish a dynasty with his family and have a kingly line. And you'll notice from verse 22 why they want to do that, because you have delivered us from the hand of Midian. You've done it. Now it's true that God had used Gideon in a remarkable way, but it's also true that God was the one who did it. I would say there wasn't anything necessarily wrong with them honoring Gideon. It was a God-honoring thing to do, but they're forgetting about God. Remember this whole episode, how it started? Go back to chapter 7 and look at verse 2. When God is interested in cutting the numbers He says to Gideon in chapter 7 verse 2, the people who are with you are too many for me to give Midian into their hands for Israel would become boastful saying my own power has delivered me. It's almost like the nation has lapsed back into that form of thinking. We did this in our own power and we did it with Gideon. And they're missing the key ingredient to all of this. It was God. God was the one who delivered them. Had they been worshiping God, had they been praising God, and in that context honoring Gideon, things would have been fine. But instead of doing that, they're only praising Gideon. Now we will acknowledge that Gideon deserves to be praised in a proper context. The scripture says we're to give honor to whom honor is due. There's no doubt that Gideon was a key instrument that God used, but the request they're making for Gideon to become their king is not a request based on what God had told Israel to do. It's based on what they want to do. They want Gideon to become their king without knowing what God's will even is in this. Back in the days of Deborah, when there had been a great victory, there was that great Deborah's Song that we saw back in chapter 5. It was a great praise song. And in that praise song, Deborah praised those that were involved in supporting the work of God. She names herself, she names Barak, and she names all the tribes that helped her, and she lists the tribes that didn't help her. But she starts off that great praise song in chapter 5 and verse 3 by saying, we want to give great glory to God. Because even though we were the players that God used, it was God who gave us the victory. That idea, that praise was lacking here. Instead of Israel singing praise to God, they're trying to get Gideon to become their king. They're not even consulting God. And you must wonder how many times we've neglected to give God the praise and the glory that He deserves for things He has done. How many times have we praised ourselves or praised others for accomplishments when in fact it was God who did it? How many times have we left Him out of the equation? I think a good example of that is when people give their testimony. Some are praising themselves. for making the decision. Some praise somebody else who were part of the decision but they leave God out and God's the one who actually saved the person. It seems to me when we're looking at this that there are two extremes that a spiritually wise believer will avoid. First of all, it's certainly right to honor those who've been greatly used by the Lord. There's nothing wrong with that. Some people are so proud they don't want to honor anyone ever. But secondly, it is also right to honor those who've been greatly used by God in the context of the fact that God's the one who did it. Don't leave that point out. God must always be praised. Now most political leaders would die to have this offer given to them. Most political leaders would have given anything because they craved this. They craved this kind of kingly opportunity and political power and kings back in this time did have absolute authority. And we know that most political leaders would love this, because every four years, in this country, we see people who will give up almost anything they have, they'll do almost anything it takes, including why, if they can make them the President of the United States. The fact of the matter is most political leaders crave power. You know, this past week, Betty Ford died, and it was interesting, and I thought the funeral was actually pretty good, especially when her son spoke. Apparently Betty Ford at the end of her life was quite a dedicated believer to Jesus Christ. Her son said at the funeral that she was responsible for pointing him to the Lord Jesus Christ and telling him he needed to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And as I was watching that, it reminded me of something that happened when President Ford died. I think it was either Donald Rumsfeld or Dick Cheney who said at Gerald Ford's memorial service that when most political leaders in Washington, D.C. look into a mirror, they see the next president. But not Gerald Ford. He wasn't interested, ever, in being president. He was not out for power. That's the way Gideon was. Gideon was not out for power either. Gideon said, I don't want the job. He said in verse 23, I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you. The Lord shall rule over you. Gideon is not some power-hungry, self-seeking, ambitious political leader who's looking to gain more authority because he's had victory. He's not looking to become king. He doesn't want the job. He says, I and my sons will not rule over you. The one who rules over you is supposed to be God. Jehovah is your king. He's the one who reigns over you. And it appears that Gideon had some perspective of the fact that one day Jesus Christ will rule Israel. And when you read these two verses, you say, man, this is a great man. This is a great man of God. This is a valiant warrior. He never aspired to be some dominant king. He was willing to turn down the job. I think it's a shame that some leaders in churches can't learn the lesson of Gideon right here. There are some leaders of churches who crave power. There are some leaders who want dominant power over people. I suspect all of us have seen it with some pastors, some elders and deacons. They want to be viewed as the king. They want to be viewed as the big shot ruler, as the one who's really on top. One of the reasons for this misconception of things, I think, happened about 20 years after the Apostle John died. One of his students, whose name was Ignatius, wrote a letter to churches, and in that letter he said some odd things. In a letter he wrote, for example, to Smyrna, he said, you must follow the bishop as Jesus Christ followed the Father. In a letter he wrote to the Ephesians, he said, it's obvious, therefore, that we must regard the bishop as the Lord himself. He was basically saying, you must honor the pastor as you would God. And I think, I don't remember reading that. When I read through the book of Ephesians, and I read through the book of Colossians, it becomes pretty clear that the head of the church is not the pastor, it is Jesus Christ. Now I'll admit that the gift of pastor-teacher is important to the church, but there's nowhere in scripture, nowhere, where God tells his people, you turn absolute power of the church over to some pastor, elder, or deacon as king. There should never be some dominant person who's arrogantly craving political power, because the federal head of the church is Jesus Christ, just like the head of Israel was God. It's the job of the leaders to move the church into thinking that way. We must move the church in accordance with the word of God in ways that please the Lord. So Gideon, when given this opportunity, says, nothing doing. I don't want this job. That's not my job. God is your leader. He's the one who rules over you. And this, in my opinion, is the high point of his entire life. If the story would have ended there, it would have been great. But it doesn't end there. We come to postscript story part number two. God's people respond generously to Gideon's request. Verse 24 says, Gideon said to them, I would request of you that each of you give me an earring from his spoil, for they had gold earrings. Because they were Ishmaelites, they said, we will surely give them. So they spread out a garment, and every one of them threw an earring there from his spoil. There was an old show on television years ago called To Tell the Truth. And different people would be paraded in. before four people who were trying to figure out which one was telling the truth. And in the end, they would say, will the real person please stand up? One old Bible scholar looking at this text, would the real Gideon please stand up? In verse 24, Gideon makes an odd request. Doesn't even seem to fit the context. He says, look, I'd like each of you to give me one of the earrings of the Ishmaelites. Here's where things get weird. Now the Ishmaelites are Arabs and they wore earrings. And when God destroyed the Midianite army, which was comprised mostly of Arabs, there were a lot of gold earrings to go around. There were a lot of spoil to be had for the taking. There was 135,000 military men and they all wore earrings, plus they had other supplies. And Gideon said, I'd like each of you to give me a gold earring. God never once told Gideon to do that. Gideon's beginning to drift away from the word of God a little bit. He's beginning to drift away from the will of God. He's following his own impulses and his own desires. Now naturally, when you've just had a bunch of people ask you to be king, and you say, I don't want that job. Tell you what, you can give me a gold earring. The people were more than willing to do that. According to verse 25, every family willingly did that. They spread out a garment. Each family gave Gideon a gold earring. The calculation was 1,700 shekels, verse 26, which is somewhere around 60 pounds of gold. Now to give you an idea, and I've read different calculations of this by the way, some say it's 46 pounds of gold, it's near 60 pounds of gold, as near as I can determine. And to give you an idea of how much that is, we need to look at some numbers. Precious metals such as gold are weighed by what is called a troy ounce, and there are 12 troy ounces in a pound of gold. So in 60 pounds of gold, you have 720 troy ounces. If an ounce of gold is worth $400, the total value of the earrings is $288,000. If an ounce of gold is worth $500, the total value is $360,000. Even though Gideon is turned down being king, it's almost like he's out for treasure of a king. And not only did the people give him this much in earrings, but verse 26 says they gave him other stuff. They gave him pendants and ornaments and purple robes that had been worn by those Midianite kings and those neck bands had been on the camels. I mean, these are artifacts that are all symbols of royalty. Something isn't right here. You can sense it. What's happening to Gideon? He looks so strong when he says, I don't wanna be your king, God's your king, but it looks like he's beginning to move in a real wrong way and you begin to sense it. It's fair to say that Gideon had been well compensated for his achievements. The people were generous and they were happy to share with Gideon some of their spoils. But this is strange. You know, I read somewhere that when it comes to physical issues, God will test his people two ways. One through poverty, the other through prosperity. Actually, it's easier to be faithful when you're poor than when you're rich. History is filled with examples of people who determined, who when they were given power and wealth, they fell apart. Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander the Great, Nero, Constantine, Charlemagne, Napoleon Bonaparte. When they got power, they did strange things. And if it should be in God's providence that he decides to prosper you, And if it should be in God's providence that he decides to make you a powerful person, we must always humble ourselves before God and strive to do his will. This is where Gideon misses the mark, which brings us to the third part. He makes something idolatrous with what the people gave him. You'll notice verse 27 says, Gideon made it into an ephod and placed it in his city, Ophrah, and all Israel played the harlot with it there." Without consulting God, without seeking God's will, he just took it upon himself to make some priestly garment. He's not authorized by God to do any of this. He just decides this is what he's going to do. His dad at one time had made a false idol to Baal. Now Gideon is beginning to move in the same direction. His initial motives may have been right, but he's not following the word of God. He's beginning to drift away into his own direction. Gideon did not start out to design an idol, but that's what it would become. I know of a lovely girl who loved the Lord. She wanted an education. Nothing wrong with that. Started out good. Girl loves the Lord, wants an education, but the education became an idol. The education pulled her away from God. The education pulled her away from the Word of God. It didn't start out bad, it ended bad. Probably Gideon sensed, I need to promote spirituality, but the true spirituality would come from a relationship with God, not from a relationship with a robe. And an ephod was an elaborate priestly apron that was worn by the high priest and was also worn by other priests, such as Samuel. He wore one. It kind of was a sleeveless type of thing. It looked like a coat without sleeves. It came down to about your waist. And apparently Gideon decided to design his own. He doesn't see himself as a king of Israel, but apparently he's beginning to see himself falsely as some sort of priest. He saw himself as a God-ordained officiant priest. He's usurping the Aaronic Levitical priesthood. He's designing his own garment. He's beginning to think just a little more highly of himself than he ought here. And there are big problems with this. First of all, the priests were supposed to be in the Levitical Aaronic line. Secondly, they are not in the tabernacle of Shiloh. They're in the city of Gideon in Ophrah. Thirdly, the garment is not being precisely designed in accordance with Exodus 28. So this appears to be good, but I'm telling you this act is contrary to the Word of God. This is not God's will, it's Gideon's will. And it is in direct violation of the Word of God. And it is pulling people away from true, proper worship. We do not find in the book of Judges any priest functioning properly as a priest. And Gideon decided, I'm going to design my own priesthood. I'm going to be the priest. I'm going to make my own priestly garment. Probably he wore it at times. All of this is going to backfire. He took an ephod to his hometown of Ophrah, and all Israel worshipped it. All Israel played the harlot. The entire nation is now going back to being unfaithful to God. This ephod that he's making becomes an idol. It became a snare to Gideon. This is something that was a source of evil for him and his family. Gideon, the guy who'd been so greatly used of God, is ending up with a life tainted with failure. And by the way, may I say, When it comes to worshiping God, human tactics and inventions must be avoided or it is idolatrous. There are churches all over the world that say we're worshiping God. It's idolatrous stuff. They're not carefully studying the scriptures, which is supposed to be part of worship. They're not singing the hymns. They're putting bands on the stage, repeating some chorus that has seven words. That's what they're doing. It's idolatrous stuff. Because it's invented by men, it's not based on the scripture. And by this act of Gideon, he actually seduced an entire nation away from worshiping God to worshiping a garment that he had made. Gideon led people from true worship to false worship. He establishes his own worship center in his own hometown all because of this garment. Where's the tabernacle of God where worship is really supposed to take place? Where's the altar that's supposed to be there? Where is the furniture? This religious system was invented by a man. Truth of the matter is Gideon was far more in tune with God when he had nothing and was trying to just beat out a little barley from the wine press than he is when he has all of this wealth in the Israeli world. I began tonight's exposition with an illustration of F.B. Meyer. I've tried to do some research. to see where F.B. Meyer went wrong. There was a period of time in Meyer's life where he began to drift away from a focus on the Word of God. He got involved in fighting social causes. He seemed to be more caught up with the political world than he was the Word of God. So he went on crusades to close down saloons and houses of prostitution and other things. He drifted from scripture. I don't like to speak negatively about the dead, but when I read what happened to Gideon, I could not help but think what happened to Jerry Falwell. Jerry Falwell at one time was a pastor who seemed to be devoted to preaching the gospel, but he drifted away from that focus. He took a lot of people with him to become a political crusader. He ended up saying things on TV that I heard with my own ears that weren't even biblical. How sad. Now I know that God will judge him and God's going to judge me, but here's the thing. When their lives ended, you did not say man. There was a great man of the word of God. There was a man really focused on understanding the scriptures. When they left the world, you said there went a political crusader. And that's about what happened to Gideon. His life ends all focused wrong. And the final glimpse we get of him is found in verses 28 to 35 in what Gary Indrig says in capsule form as Gideon's back sliding. There are ten final facts brought out about him. Number one, the Midianites were subdued. They didn't dominate Israel anymore. This could have been a wonderful time of worship. They had new freedoms. They had new opportunities to get serious about the scriptures, but they didn't do it. Secondly, there was peace in the land for 40 years. This is a pure grace blessing given by God during the days of Gideon. He is the reason why God has done this. They had peace in their land, and Israel should have used that opportunity to enjoy life and enjoy God. Thirdly, Gideon went and lived in his own house. That's what verse 29 says, that he went to his own house. Gideon retired from public life. He pretty much lived a private life of luxury. There's nothing wrong with retirement, but in your retirement you want to stay focused on understanding and applying the word of God. That's what Gideon didn't do. Fourthly, Gideon had 70 sons who were his direct descendants. You'll notice in verse 30, now Gideon had 70 sons. The words indicate that all 70 sons here were his legal sons. Fifthly, he had many wives. The end of verse 30 says, and he had many wives. Gideon became part of the affluent society. And as you can see, it isn't affecting his spiritual life in a good way. He's focused on the physical. It's interesting to me that Gideon said, I don't want to become a king, but I'd like to have a harem like a king. And so he has all of these wives, large scale polygamy, which is certainly not sanctioned by the Lord. Sixthly, he had a concubine with whom he had a son named Abimelech. We're going to meet him. Oh, we meet him. Verse 31 says, his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son and he named him Abimelech. The name Abimelech means my father a king. Shechem. He had a concubine in Shechem which was the center for Baal worship. Now a concubine's son could not legally inherit anything. This son will become diabolical. In fact, I will submit to you that in the next couple of Sunday nights, you will see this son becomes a real type of the Antichrist and of Satan. The seventh fact is Gideon lived to be an old man. He died at an old age. He was buried in Ophrah. Notice verse 32, Gideon, the son of Joash, died at a ripe old age, was buried in the tomb of his father, Joash, in Ophrah of the Abruzzites. God did grant Gideon a long life. He died with wealth. He died with honor of the people. But he died out of sync with God. The eighth fact is, as soon as Gideon was gone, the sons of Israel worshiped Baal. Verse 33 says that as soon as Gideon was dead, the sons of Israel again played the harlot with the Baals. Baal berith means that This is the Lord of the Covenant, so they're worshipping Baal as he's the covenant-keeping God. As long as Gideon was alive, they did at least have the thought of Jehovah, but as soon as he was gone, this nation was back in the same condition they were before Gideon started in it. In other words, ladies and gentlemen, when Gideon left the world, He doesn't leave his mark on a nation that we need to stay committed to Jehovah as soon as he leaves the world, they're back in the same spiritual rut that they were before God even used Gideon for anything. And ninthly, as soon as Gideon was gone, the sons of Israel forgot God. Verse 34 says, thus the sons of Israel did not remember the Lord, their God, who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side. As soon as Gideon is gone, we're right back into the pattern of the book of Judges. That whole cycle. Everybody doing that which is right in their own eyes. Gideon's God, things go from good to bad and back again. Israel serves God one day, doesn't serve God the next day. As soon as Gideon has left the scene, she forgets God. And finally, as soon as gideon was gone the sons of israel stop treating gideon's family honorably verse thirty-five says nor did they show kindness to the household of jerusalem all that is gideon in accordance with all the good that he had done to israel the fact is israel did or a debt to gideon because of the good he had done but they soon forgot about it i think it thrills the heart of god that we continue to support mrs miles and one of the Miles children. This church realizes all the good that he did in giving us a proper doctrinal foundation. We honor that to this day. Mr. Miles is our link to Dr. Chafer and Dr. Schofield and we honor that. And I believe it honors the Lord. Israel didn't think that way about Gideon and his family. And this text becomes a warning to us all. We could all name people who at one time were really on fire for the Lord. They were involved in fruitful ministry. I mean, they were zeroed in on doing the will of God and then they fell away and they get involved in scandal. One of the things that this should prompt every one of us to do is get down on our knees and ask God that he would not ever let this happen to us. Every one of us should be willing to pray, Lord, let me leave this life a winner. Focused on your word, focused on your will, because this world will pull you away from that goal. And this is especially true when the hair begins to turn gray. One of the saddest things that you'll ever see is an older man or older woman of God who at one time was greatly used by the Lord, but they've drifted away from that focus. They no longer care about God's word. They no longer care about God's will. And they no longer care about God's church. What a testimony we'll have. If people say, you know those people at Texas Corners Bible Church, no matter what their age, They love the Lord. They love the Word of God. That's the testimony we want until we get out of this world. And we must not ever compromise our commitment to accurately understanding and obeying the scriptures, no matter how old we are. Because if we are not careful, what happened to Gideon can happen to us. As the song says, Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. May we pray. Our Father, we thank you tonight for the lessons that we have learned from Gideon. We praise you for the way you used him. We thank you that he did want you to rule over your people. We would ask, Lord, that you would use that grace of yours to keep us close to thee. I pray that you would prevent us from sliding backwards Keep us moving forward. Keep us focused on your word and will until we leave this world. And we will forever thank you and praise you for that. In Jesus' name, amen.